About Me

I was a reporter and columnist for 40 years for a chain of newspapers in the suburbs of Chicago. I'm a military veteran having served in the United States Army Combat Engineers (Cpl. E-4) and a Korean War veteran with an Honorable Discharge from the Armed Forces of the United States of America

It was June 1, and a crew from Charlie Company, known as Dustoff, 6th Battalion of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade had been called to pick up another wounded American in Marja. The two crew members — the crew chief, Sgt. Grayson Colby, and the medic, Sgt. Ian Bugh — stepped out and onto the soft dirt of a freshly tilled field